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Croydon Westfield gains planning permission

Hundreds of construction jobs are set to be created in Croydon after the council gave planning permission for the building of London's third Westfield shopping centre there.

The £1.4 billion development will be part of a development that will also include 1,000 new homes and generate an anticipated 7,000 jobs.

It will help revitalise the town centre, with much of the new complex occupying the former Whitgift Shopping Centre site.

Work is expected to start in 2019 and once completed, the new Westfield will contain more than 300 shops, plus restaurants, cafes and leisure facilities. There will be a new bowling alley and multiplex cinema.

The plan is the result of a collaboration that involved the council, the Croydon Partnership, the Greater London Authority and minister for London Greg Hands. It was supported by Croydon's three MPs.

It means Croydon will join Shepherd's Bush and Stratford in having a Westfield Centre.

Commenting on the news, Croydon Council leader Tony Newman said: "This is fantastic news for Croydon and we have been doing everything we can to bring the redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre to fruition so local people can benefit from its wealth of offerings."

Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones was also delighted, tweeting: "Croydon is one of the most exciting places to live in London right now - with Boxpark, the Fairfield halls development, street art, huge musical talent and Tech City."

The town in the south of Greater London has certainly had a lot of development, and Westfield will not be the only major new construction project.

In September, planning permission was granted for what will be the tallest building in Britain outside inner London, a residential skyscraper standing 777 ft tall and containing 794 homes, plus 35,000 sq m of office space. This will make it a metre taller than the One Canada Square building at Canary Wharf.

Developers Guildhouse UK and Rosepride gained planning permission for the 68-storey Landowne Road development at the second time of asking. The original application was more focused on apartments, with 917 proposed homes.